Brenda Ball seeks her ‘Hebraic roots’

Brenda Ball of Kinston reads Hebrew scriptures on a prayer shawl Friday at her home. Ball, who is Christian, will observe the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah this week.

Janet S. Carter / The Free Press

By David Anderson / Staff Writer

Published: Friday, December 7, 2012 at 07:00 PM.

Brenda Ball was raised as a Christian, but she and the fellow members of her church will be celebrating Hanukkah this year, part of a larger effort to understand their “Hebraic roots.”

“I’ve always been a Christian, but as a child I just had this love for the Jewish people and the land,” she said Friday.

Jews around the world will begin celebrating the annual eight-night observance of Hanukkah tonight.

Hanukkah is a time for Jews to commemorate the liberation of their temple in Jerusalem several thousand years ago.

Once the Maccabee warriors liberated the Holy Land from the Assyrian occupiers and entered the temple, they attempted to light the temple light. The priests discovered they only had enough oil for the lamp to burn for one night, but God made the oil last for eight nights, according to the traditional Hanukkah stories.

Jewish families typically light candles, sing songs, play games and eat special foods such as latkes, or potato pancakes.

Ball and other members of Vision Caster Ministries of Winterville will be doing the same this week.

Brenda Ball was raised as a Christian, but she and the fellow members of her church will be celebrating Hanukkah this year, part of a larger effort to understand their “Hebraic roots.”

“I’ve always been a Christian, but as a child I just had this love for the Jewish people and the land,” she said Friday.

Jews around the world will begin celebrating the annual eight-night observance of Hanukkah tonight.

Hanukkah is a time for Jews to commemorate the liberation of their temple in Jerusalem several thousand years ago.

Once the Maccabee warriors liberated the Holy Land from the Assyrian occupiers and entered the temple, they attempted to light the temple light. The priests discovered they only had enough oil for the lamp to burn for one night, but God made the oil last for eight nights, according to the traditional Hanukkah stories.

Jewish families typically light candles, sing songs, play games and eat special foods such as latkes, or potato pancakes.

Ball and other members of Vision Caster Ministries of Winterville will be doing the same this week.

The congregation held a Hanukkah celebration Friday, and has been holding weekly study sessions of the Torah, the Jews’ holy text which covers the first five books of the Bible.

“As a Christian believer, there are blessings that we receive by understanding our Hebraic roots,” Ball said.

She had a number of Jewish-themed items in her dining room, including a Passover seder plate, a prayer shawl known as a tallit, books about Jewish culture, history and food and more.

She also had a small plaque which read: “Shalom Y’all.”

“That’s very Lenoir County,” Ball said.

Ball also had a card on her dining room table — it had a menorah on the front, along with a Hebrew saying and the translation: “A great miracle happened here,” referring to the oil lasting eight nights.

“I got my first Hanukkah card today from a friend and I thought, ‘This is neat,’ she said.

Ball cited a passage from the Book of John, Chapter 10, Verse 22, which noted Jesus Christ’s visit to Jerusalem during the Festival of Dedication, also known as Hanukkah.

“We are learning more and more about how much (Christians and Jews) belong to each other, and how the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob is a part of our lives,” she said.

She said she has visited Israel six times, is studying Hebrew and regularly attends services at Kinston’s synagogue, Temple Israel. She also has a number of Jewish friends and worked at Pearson’s, owned by Bert and Gloria Pearson of Kinston, as a teenager.

“God kept connecting me with Jewish people,” she said.

Temple Israel will host a community menorah lighting for Hanukkah on Dec. 14.

Ball strongly believes people must pray for the safety of Jerusalem — Israel and Palestinian militants recently concluded armed conflict in the Gaza Strip on Israel’s western border.

The Hamas militants were able to lob missiles into Israel’s largest cities, including Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

“In Psalms it says, ‘Pray for the peace of Jerusalem; those that do will prosper.’ . . . Everything else can pass away but Jerusalem will always stand,” Ball said.